Final Declaration of the 17th International Seminar Problems of the Revolution in Latin America

Our Goal Is Socialism; We Fight For an Authentic Social Revolution!

Modernization of Capitalism or Social Revolution?

After five years since the economic crisis of the capitalist system
broke out, its effects are still present in the different countries of
the world, with greater or lesser intensity in some than in others.

The most outstanding thing, in recent months, is the response by the
workers, youth and peoples to the economic measures implemented by the
governments and international financial institutions that had the
supposed aim of overcoming it. The bourgeoisie finds it increasingly
difficult to place the burden of the crisis on the backs of the
workers, because these workers have a better understanding that those
who caused the crisis should pay for it.

Europe is a living example of the enormous and sustained social
mobilization against the neoliberal economic programs; the working
class and youth are playing momentous roles in this. This is not the
only place in the world where the governments in office and the ruling
classes in power are targets of the protest: northern Africa, Asia and
Latin America are also the scenes of important struggles. In general,
we can state that dissatisfaction with the status quo is spreading
throughout the whole world and the desire for change is encouraging the
actions of the peoples.

On our continent, after a period of decline of the social struggle
particularly in countries ruled by regimes labeled as "progressive," we
are witnessing a reawakening of the struggle of the working masses that
transcends national boundaries and encourages the struggle of the
fraternal peoples.

They are fighting for decent wages, for education, for health care, for
bread, for democracy, for political rights, in defense of sovereignty,
of natural resources, against corruption; in short, they are struggling
for life, for freedom!

These contests are taking place both among the peoples of the countries
in which the openly neoliberal bourgeoisie still remains in power and
as well as in those ruled by so-called "progressive" governments. And
in each of these governments, beyond the evident differences that we
cannot lose sight of, there are also many aspects that coincide. It is
difficult to differentiate, for example, between the Colombian Law of
Public Safety and the similar Ecuadorian law or the reforms to the
Integral Criminal Code in that country that criminalizes social
protest; little or nothing distances the labor reforms of obvious
neoliberal content implemented in Mexico from those in Brazil, or the
so-called anti-terrorist laws that are being carried out in Argentina,
Peru, etc..

Both the "progressive" governments as well as the neoliberal ones are
relying on extractive industry (plunder of natural resources) as the
road to development, progress and well-being that history teaches us
well is the way for the consolidation of foreign dependence,
pauperization of the peoples and the irreversible affect on nature.

These governments also agree on promoting legal and institutional
reforms in favor of a revitalization of bourgeois institutions
necessary for the new processes of capitalist accumulation and also
oriented towards social control and the criminalization of popular
protest.

From different but not irreconcilable political conceptions, the
bourgeois factions heading those governments agree on the processes of
modernization of capitalism, with which they aim to create increased
levels of accumulation for native oligarchies and improvements in their
participation in the global capitalist market.

The changes that are taking place in Latin America and the Caribbean
are nothing other than a development of capitalism itself; in some
cases they go beyond neoliberalism but in no way a negation of the
prevailing system, since they do not affect private ownership of the
means of production, they do not affect the rule of the bankers,
businesspeople and landowners, they do not harm foreign dependence.

The dangerous thing about this process is that there are governments
such as that of Rafael Correa in Ecuador or of Dilma Rousseff in Brazil
which promote it in the name of supposedly revolutionary processes,
pretending to be anti-imperialist and even socialist. There are also
those who act under the signboard of national and popular regimes, such
as those of Cristina Fernandez in Argentina or Danilo Medina in the
Dominican Republic.

The so-called progressive governments are causing serious damage to the
consciousness of the workers, the youth and people. The significant
social and material programs and the abundant and efficient government
propaganda have created the fiction, internally within the respective
countries and on the international level, that in fact they are
creating processes of structural change. But the reality is different;
their economic and political programs only serve to affirm the ruling
class in power and foreign dependence.

The modernization taking place is going hand in hand with foreign
capital, whether of the United States, Europe or Asia, which has made
Latin America and the Caribbean a scenario of intense inter-imperialist
dispute in the economic and political fields. We note the rapid growth
of Chinese investment in the region and the loss of positions by U.S.
imperialism, which does not make it less dangerous for the peoples.

The organizations participating in the 17th International Seminar
Problems of the Revolution in Latin America agree on the need to
confront, with the same frankness and energy, the neoliberal
governments and the so-called "progressive" governments, because they
both represent the economic and political interests of the bourgeoisie
and of imperialist finance capital.

We call on the workers, the youth and the peoples in general to close
ranks against the ideological and political currents that are
supposedly leftist, revolutionary or progressive that manipulate the
consciousness and desire for change existing among the peoples and that
act against the organized popular movement and against the forces that
represent genuine positions of the revolutionary left.

We support the peoples who choose the path of struggle to make their
voices heard and win their demands; we encourage the peoples, and
particularly the youths, of Turkey, Brazil, Chile and Egypt who, with
energy and initiative in the streets, have won significant victories.

We stand with the people of Ecuador who are facing a demagogic
government that is resorting to repression and fear to prevent social
unrest from taking the form of open and continuous struggle. We reject
the prevailing criminalization of social protest, we support Mery
Zamora, Clever Jimenez, the Cotopaxi 7, the 12 Central Technical
College students and more than 200 social leaders and activists who
face criminal proceedings on charges of sabotage and terrorism.

We applaud the Venezuelan people who are fighting to prevent the right
wing and imperialism from reversing the political process begun by Hugo
Chavez, while we also encourage the demand that radical measures be
taken to move the process forward.

Our goal is socialism! We are fighting for a genuine revolutionary
process, therefore we base ourselves on the unity of the workers,
peasants, youth, women, indigenous peoples in the tradition of
liberation of the Latin American peoples. We are directing our energies
against foreign domination and against exploitation by the local ruling
classes; only by putting an end to their oppression will we win
freedom. This is our commitment.